Coffee Break French
Season 4, Episode 21
!
Email: Monique to Sylvie
PB:
Bonjour à tous !
Mark: Bonjour tout le monde et bienvenue à Coffee
Break French.
PB:
Alors, bien sûr, vous êtes toujours en
compagnie de Pierre-Benoît,
Mark: Et Mark, et nous sommes ravis d’être ici avec
vous encore une fois.
PB:
ravi
delighted
Oui en plus il fait beau aujourd’hui, c’est
agréable.
Mark: Il fait vachement beau !
PB:
C’est super !
Mark: Yes, the weather indeed is absolutely stunning
at the moment here in Scotland and we are
not complaining because this will probably be
vachement
very, extremely, “dead”
The word vachement is commonly
used in French to emphasise the
adjective it describes. Since this is
quite a colloquial register, the
translations will vary from region to
region.
our summer, the four days of it.
PB:
Eh oui !
Mark: We are bringing you this episode of Coffee
Break French as usual with lots and lots of
interesting language. We are following the
story of Monique and Sylvie, Matthieu and
Gabrielle and this is the start of the second
half of the course, if you like.
PB:
!
Oh !
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Mark:
So we are listening to Monique’s email today.
She is preparing for the visit of Sylvie to Epinal
to see her brother and it’s time now to have a
listen to that email.
PB:
Allons-y !
!
Salut ma fille, bon je pense que tu vas toujours
bien depuis ce matin ! On ne se sera jamais
envoyé autant de messages dans un laps de
Information
Further notes on the text will be
provided in the transcript of the
Language Study episode.
temps si rapproché ! Bon, super pour ce weekend. Je viens à l’instant de le dire à ton
frangin, et oui il vient juste de se lever, le
décalage horaire soi-disant ! Enfin il est aux
anges. Il lui tarde vraiment de te revoir. Il dit
que toutes ces nouvelles technologies telles
que Facebook, Skype ou même les e-mails,
sont super mais ce n’est tout de même pas la
même chose que de se voir en personne.
Enfin c’est très pratique pour rester en contact
quand on habite loin.
!
Oui oui il se remet tout doucement de son
voyage. Il se couche encore très tard et il n'est
donc pas matinal, mais bon, cela commence à
changer. Il devrait être en pleine forme pour
ce week-end quand tu arriveras. Tu t’es bien
organisée pour ton voyage je trouve ! J’en
parlerai à ton père ce soir quand il rentrera du
boulot mais c’est un jour où il ne travaille pas
!
donc il pourra venir te chercher. Au pire, ton
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frère prendra la vieille Clio et il descendra te
chercher. Je te tiendrai au courant mais ne
t’inquiète pas, quelqu’un sera là pour
t’attendre à ta descente du train.
!
Ouh la la il me tarde d’être en week-end, je
vais avoir mes deux enfants réunis, il va falloir
marquer ce jour d’une pierre blanche ! Je
viens de regarder la météo sur Internet, il
devrait faire beau ce week-end. Peut-être
pourrions-nous faire un barbecue dans le
jardin ! Je vais contacter Mme Gauthier pour
voir s’ils sont disponibles. Malheureusement
Gérard et Michèle Martin ne sont pas libres, ils
partent faire le tour des fjords en Norvège. Ils
sont venus hier soir boire l’apéritif à la maison,
ils voulaient discuter avec ton frère car ils ont
pour projet d’aller visiter le Japon donc ils sont
venus à la pêche à l’information! Ils te passent
le bonjour et sont très déçus de te louper
encore une fois. Ils ont pris ton numéro de
portable au cas où ils viendraient sur Paris.
!
Bon et sinon, je change de sujet mais toujours
pas de nouvelles côté cœur ? On ne sait
jamais si ce matin tu étais encore en retard et
si tu étais encore entrée en collision avec un
charmant jeune homme ! Bon, allez, je vais
aller voir si ton frère veut aller se balader un
!
peu, c’est dommage de rester enfermé par un
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beau temps pareil ! Je te tiens au courant ce
soir pour ce weekend.
Bonne après-midi.
Bisous
Maman
!
Mark:
!
So a very interesting text this week full of really
nice phrases, lots of future tenses too.
PB:
Yes indeed, Mark. Very rich structures and I’m
sure were going to explore them now.
Mark:
!
We are indeed. But first, I’m going to give you
the English summary, as usual.
So, in this week's email as we know, Monique
is full of excitement for Sylvie's forthcoming
trip to Epinal. As we know, Sylvie's brother has
returned from Japan for a visit and Sylvie is
going to be visiting this weekend. Monique is
replying quickly to the previous email from
Sylvie, and she starts by saying that they've
never replied to each other's emails so quickly.
It may well be a few weeks since we read
Sylvie's last email, but in terms of our story, not
a lot of time has passed! Guillaume, Sylvie’s
brother, is delighted that she is coming to
spend the weekend with them. Talking about
Guillaume, Monique says…
PB :
Il est aux anges ! ange (m)
angel
être aux anges
to be in seventh heaven, to be in
the clouds
Mark : He is really looking forward to seeing his
!
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sister: all the new-fangled ways of keeping in
touch like Skype and Facebook aren't quite
!
the same as seeing someone face to face!
Monique tells Sylvie that Guillaume is
gradually recovering from his long journey,
but the décalage horaire - the time difference
- is still taking its toll. He should be fighting fit
by the time that she gets there, though.
Monique suggests that her dad will be able to
come and collect her at the station, and if he's
not available Guillaume himself will come and
pick her up. Either way, someone will be there
when she arrives.
!
Monique is delighted that she's going to have
her two children together this weekend.
PB :
Je vais avoir mes deux enfants réunis ! Mark : Now the weather is looking good too, so
they're planning a barbecue in the garden and
she's going to invite some friends. She knows
that their friends the Martins aren't available
because they're going to Norway on holiday.
They had visited the previous evening with the
main purpose of quizzing Guillaume about
Japan as they plan to add that to their list of
future travel destinations. And, just to be in the
safe side, they've also taken Sylvie's phone
number in case they're ever in Paris.
!
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!
Monique finishes by checking up on the latest
regarding Sylvie's love life.
PB :
Toujours pas de nouvelles côté cœur ? Mark : She's off to see if Guillaume wants to go out
for a walk as it's a shame to be inside when the
weather is so nice outdoors! That sounds quite
familiar! As we’re recording this in a very warm
studio! But that is where our summary of this
week's email from Monique to Sylvie comes to
an end.
Mark:
So, it’s now time to talk about our famous four
expressions. Les quatre expressions choisies
par Pierre-Benoît.
PB:
Yeah. Our fantastic four!
Mark:
Alors, numéro 1: qu’est-ce que tu as choisi ?
PB:
J’ai choisi…
!
Je viens à l’instant de le dire à ton frangin, et
oui il vient juste de se lever, le décalage
horaire soi-disant !
!
Mark:
An interesting expression: lots in this one!
PB:
It’s not just one expression.
Mark:
There are several. So, je viens à l’instant de le
dire à ton frangin. Let’s deal first of all with that
interesting vocabulary: ton frangin.
PB:
!
Ah oui ! Quite colloquial.
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Mark:
Yeah, it’s a colloquial version of what word?
PB:
Frère.
Mark:
Yeah, so ton frère your brother ; ton frangin is
I suppose is the equivalent of mère and
maman. Père - papa?
PB:
Non because I think frangin is more colloquial.
Mark:
OK, so it’s kind of a slang we are talking about.
Your “bro”…
PB:
Your “bro” and… et aussi la frangine.
Mark:
La frangine for your…
PB:
Yes, your “sis”.
Mark:
Your sis, I suppose, yeah. So your bro and your
sis although I suppose that they have a kind of
regional element. You might not talk about
your bro in the U.K. anyway. So ton frangin is
your brother but is a familiar way of referring
to your brother. But je viens à l’instant de le
dire à ton frangin , je viens de faire quelque
chose; I have just done something, of course.
So, je viens à l’instant de dire or de le dire à
ton frangin, I have just this minute told your
brother.
PB:
Like you put literally.
Mark:
Absolutely!
PB:
I’ve just literally, it’s just done it, just done it.
Mark:
Yeah. And we see this expression in the next
part of the sentence too.
PB:
!
Il vient juste de se lever .
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Mark:
It’s funny here because this time it’s not il vient
à l’instant de se lever, but il vient juste de se
lever . He has just, just…
PB:
It’s just, just. Just that minute!
Mark:
We’ve spoken about this before on Coffee
Break French. Venir de faire quelque chose is
to have just done something. So if you add
another juste or à l’instant.
PB:
It becomes redundant.
Mark:
Yeah, you don’t really need it.
PB:
But in spoken French, we tend to add that wee
bit. I would say in written French, try to avoid
using the juste and à l’instant. Just use the
venir plus de plus the infinitive.
Mark:
OK. So, je viens à l’instant de le dire à ton
frangin, et oui il vient juste de se lever. And
then I think we’ve got the most interesting part
of this phrase that you’ve chosen.
PB:
Yeah, that’s why I chose it Mark to be honest.
Mark:
OK.
PB:
Le décalage horaire soi-disant ! Mark:
So décalage horaire is the time difference, but
we would probably use the expression ‘jet lag’
because the jet lag is what comes as a result of
the time difference. So thinking about what’s
happening here, the mother Monique is
saying to her daughter Sylvie, talking about
Sylvie’s brother, Guillaume: oh, he’s still in his
bed as a result of the jet lag apparently.
!
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PB:
And it’s interesting how in French you only
have soi-disant but our listeners cannot see
my face. Soi-disant plus everything that’s
implied in the mimics of the face.
Mark:
Yeah.
PB:
When in English, you have to actually add so
many words, you have to extrapolate just to
explain the subtlety of the expression soidisant.
Mark:
Yeah, let’s think of it grammatically: soi-disant.
Now soi is S-O-I it’s not S-O-I-T or anything.
There’s no subjunctive element in there.
PB:
Non, non, non.
Mark:
Soi as in self and then the disant part is the
gerund of dire - to say. So, “saying self”. Self
saying or so he says or so she says…
PB:
So one says you are nothing because it makes
it very impersonal. Like anybody would say
that.
Mark:
Can we use soi-disant as a sort of adjective?
You know for example, the “so-called” director,
he thinks of himself as the director.
PB:
Yeah, le soi-disant directeur.
Mark:
And it will come before the noun because it’s
longer.
PB:
Yeah, with everything that’s implied in there,
you know he thinks he is the director but he
has not done a good job or a something. He’s
!
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not… you know he’s not doing what he is
supposed to be doing.
Mark:
Almost like the self proclaimed director or
something like that.
PB:
Yeah, yeah.
Mark:
So, here were using as an adjective le soidisant directeur. Could we have another
example?
PB:
La soi-disante amie.
Mark:
OK, I suppose a so-called friend there.
PB:
Supposed to be friend.
Mark:
So, give us an example of that in a sentence.
PB:
Oui, elle devait venir à ma fête, elle m’avait dit
qu’elle préparerait la nourriture et tout, et tout,
et finalement, cinq minutes avant la fête elle
m’a téléphoné pour me dire qu’elle ne venait
elle devait venir à ma fête
she was supposed to come to my
party
elle préparerait la nourriture
she would prepare the food
pas.
Mark:
OK, let’s just explain all this before you go on
because that’s quite a lot of fast French there.
So you’ve got a friend who had said she was
coming to your party. She was going to
prepare the food and everything. She was
going to be the best friend in the world and
everything but 5 minutes before she cancelled
on you. So this is where we can describe that
person as…
PB:
Une soi-disante amie.
Mark: Yeah, a so-called friend. Some friend she was.
So we can use soi-disant as an adjective in this
!
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sense but in the expression within our text, is
slightly different. Because what we are saying
in here is le décalage horaire soi-disant. And
we have to go a little bit further than just the
one word, the two word translation of soidisant. In French soi-disant is a very succinct
phrase but in English we need to extrapolate
that a little more. So here, she says je viens à
l’instant de le dire à ton frangin. I’ve just told
your brother, et oui il vient juste de se lever,
and he has just got up. Hmm, as a result of the
time difference, as a result of the jet lag or so
he says. As a result of the jet lag apparently
and with that kind of knowing nod and that
sort of tapping your nose kind of thing.
PB:
Squinting eyes. Hmm.
Mark:
Hmm. As a result of the time difference, yeah.
OK so it’s a very interesting phrase, a lot of rich
stuff in there. Apart from all the venir de and
the frangin.
PB:
Yeah, for example Mark said to me we would
record this in 5 minutes. Soi-disant.
Mark:
Yeah, apparently.
PB:
And it took 15 minutes.
Mark:
Absolutely! Were now in 13 minutes, 15
seconds so… maybe a little longer than 15
minutes.
PB:
No, but I think here were hitting the right thing
here. We’re talking about those kind of
!
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expression, that you need to discuss. They’re
amazing!
Mark:
Absolutely!
PB:
Yeah, it’s really good stuff.
Mark:
So your second expression is also something
we need to talk about as well. Let’s listen to
this one.
!
Il va falloir marquer ce jour d’une pierre
blanche !
!
Mark:
So this is when Monique is delighted about
having both her children in the one place for
the weekend. She says I’m going to have both
my children together and she says…
PB:
Il va falloir marquer ce jour d’une pierre
blanche !
Mark:
Literally, we can work out what that means.
Literally we are going to have to mark this day
with a white stone. Can you shed any light on
the origin of this expression, Pierre-Benoît?
PB:
Well I thought first it had something to do with
the jail, you know like when you’re counting
the days, and you mark on the wall with the
stone.
Mark:
With the stone.
PB:
You just mark the wall and then you would
have like those Roman...
Mark:
!
Yeah, the Roman numerals and the tally marks.
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PB:
And the fifth one you go across and I thought
yeah, I can see that it’s very important. So I
thought you know that when you have
something very important you want marquer
d’une pierre blanche but it looks like it hasn’t
got to do anything with that.
Mark:
It turns out it’s a little bit different because we
have done some research on this and it turns
out that in the past when the men in France
were going on military service, military service
could be something that had an element of
luck involved in it because they had to dip
their hands into a bag and pull out a stone. If
the stone was black when they pulled it out
then they had to head off to the front line.
PB:
The front line!
Mark:
However, either that or pay someone to do it
for them because they could actually get out
of it that way in those times. However if they
were able to pull out a white stone by luck,
then that would mean they wouldn’t need to
head off to battle.
PB:
Yeah.
Mark:
And it was therefore an important day.
PB:
Yes, so basically out of this we can truly define
that it’s the idea of an important event.
Mark:
Event, yeah. So for Monique it’s an important
event the fact that she’s got both her children
together, which when her son lives in Japan
!
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and her daughter lives in Paris, it’s not the
most…
PB:
Is that the idea of cherishing this moment or
it’s like a wee treasure?
Mark:
Yeah, in English we have an expression, a red
letter day and there are I’m sure equally
interesting stories behind the origin of that
phrase. We’ll not go into that here.
PB:
No, no, no.
Mark:
But a red letter day is a day that you
remember, a day that you… a day that would
go down in history. There’s another
expression. Good! So marquer d’une pierre
blanche.
PB:
Marquer quelque chose d’une pierre blanche.
Mark:
Très bien !
PB:
Marquer ce jour d’une pierre blanche ! Mark:
OK troisième expression s’il te plaît.
PB:
Oui, on l’écoute tout de suite.
!
Ils ont pour projet d’aller visiter le Japon donc
ils sont venus à la pêche à l’information!
!
Mark:
Interesting!
PB:
Here again you’re going to ask me, where do
you think does this comes from?
Mark:
It’s probably maybe just figurative here I think.
PB:
Or could be from the English language?
!
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Mark:
It could well be, yeah. So, what we are talking
about here, the Martins, the couple that
Monique knows. They came over to talk to
Guillaume and to find out a little more about
Japan because they want to go there on
holiday. And the expression is ils sont venus à
la pêche à l’information ! So, aller à la
pêche…
PB:
Oui, ça on connaît.
Mark:
…means to go fishing. So la pêche, and just
watch that because la pêche is fishing, it’s also
the word for ‘a peach’ une pêche.
PB:
Or the expression as well, avoir la pêche is
quite nice!
Mark:
Yeah, to be feeling on form. To be feeling
peachy.
PB:
Yeah, to feel good.
Mark:
Yeah. However, it’s slightly different from the
verb pécher because pécher (pêcher) can
mean…
PB:
To fish or to sin.
Mark:
Exactly! So…
PB:
And it will be a different accent.
Mark:
Yeah. So, two different words there, slightly
different spelling. Pêcher meaning ‘to fish’ is
spelled P-Ê-C-H-E-R. Pécher the verb ‘to sin’, as
in to do bad things is P-É-C-H-E-R. But here we
are talking about aller à la pêche, ils sont
!
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venus à la pêche , but what were they coming
fishing for?
PB:
Information!
Mark:
Absolutely! They were coming fishing for
information ; ils sont venus à la pêche à
l’information ! And notice it’s fishing for
something but in French it’s aller à la pêche…
PB:
À l’information here. But that’s a sens figuré
obviously.
Mark:
Figurative fishing.
PB:
But if you go to sens propre, you are going
fishing for fish! Aller à la pêche au saumon.
Mark:
Yeah.
PB:
I know it’s not à because we’ve got à + le
which becomes au. Aller à la pêche au crabe.
Mark:
Yeah. So you’re fishing for salmon, fishing for
crab then in that case it’s à + whatever it is.
PB:
It’s the same expression whether it’s figurative
or proper.
Mark:
And what would be the difference between
aller à la pêche au saumon and pêcher au
saumon.
PB:
Non. Pêcher le saumon.
Mark:
Pêcher le saumon. OK. And is it the same
meaning?
PB:
Yeah. Je pêche le saumon, j’aime aller à la
pêche au saumon.
Mark:
!
OK, interesting stuff.
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PB:
It’s aller à la pêche à + the noun OK, or pêcher
and it’s direct, it’s le.
Mark:
Très bien !
PB:
Intéressant ça.
Mark:
Oui c’est une expression très intéressante.
Bravo !
PB:
Oui. I hope I explain it well.
Mark:
Absolutely, yeah.
PB:
And I’m not fishing for compliments.
Mark:
Oh là! Donc on peut pêcher des
compliments ?
PB:
No, French people do not, do not compliment
anybody, OK.
Mark:
You got to be careful there.
PB:
I don’t know, I’m just joking. If you are looking
for, or fishing for compliment you would say
chercher les compliments or chercher des
compliments.
Mark:
OK donc chercher…
PB:
Et quand c’est pêcher des compliments… no,
that’s wrong.
Mark:
OK, let’s get on to our fourth expression
because time is marching on.
PB:
Oh !
!
On ne sait jamais si ce matin tu étais encore en
retard et si tu étais encore entrée en collision
avec un charmant jeune homme !
!
!
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!
Mark:
Oh, that’s an interesting one. Why have you
chosen that?
PB:
Oh, I just love the use of si twice Mark and the
fact that Sylvie meant to translate it in English.
And I realise that the si is not going to be
used. Does it make sense?
Mark:
Yes, it makes absolutely perfect sense. I’ve
realised this. On ne sait jamais .
PB:
And this is tricky the one I’ve chosen.
Mark:
On ne sait jamais, so you’ll never know, you’ll
never know. But the si there, literally, would be
saying, “you never know if this morning you
were still late”… or you were late again.
PB:
So, that’s it so the “if” in French implies that if
this happened, if this did really happen.
Mark:
But in English, we would be more likely to say
‘you never know’. Maybe…
PB:
Perhaps.
Mark:
Perhaps this morning you are late and you had
already bumped into a charming young man
in the station again. So she’s fishing for
information about the… about Sylvie’s love life
here.
PB:
What I find interesting Mark here is that the si
in French will trigger a tense, a specific tense
which in English will be different, we’ll have to
use a different tense because were using
perhaps or maybe. And not si and not if.
!
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Mark:
Exactly! Because remember back to our si
clauses, if something were the case, then
something else would be the case and so and
so. On ne sait jamais si ce matin tu étais
encore en retard: one never knows if this
morning you were late ; et si tu étais encore
entrée en collision avec un charmant jeune
homme… and if you had bumped into or
collided with a charming young man. But
because we are using no si in English, we are
not using an if in English, it becomes, you
never know! Perhaps this morning you were
late, so we’re still okay there with the
imperfect.
PB:
And you bumped…
Mark:
Yeah, there’s no had bumped, there’s no
progression backwards inside. That’s very
interesting!
PB:
Yes, yes, yes! It’s very… it’s subtle again. I think
this episode is just like the other one, very
subtle. But I think even one step, even more
subtle.
Mark:
We’re increasing the subtlety. Were also
increasing the time, 22½ minutes of this lesson
so we hope you’ve stuck with us all this time.
PB:
Oh! Yes, maybe there’s a subtle hint Mark for
us to finish!
Mark:
Indeed! Before we do, don’t forget you can
head over to coffeebreakfrench.com where
!
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you can find all the information about signing
up to become a member of Season 4 and
access all of our materials and it includes our
language study, audio shows, our full
transcripts of this show and the language
study show and lots more besides.
Coffeebreakfrench.com for the links for
Season 4. In the meantime, merci beaucoup
comme d’habitude et à une prochaine fois !
PB:
!
Oui à très bientôt, au revoir !
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